Is Blockchain the Land of Milk and Honey? 9 Experts Share their Concerns

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June 28, 2017

Can blockchain transform the world? It is already doing that and, according to Chitra Ragavan, the Chief Communications Officer at Gem, a Los Angeles-based blockchain startup and one of our influencers, “blockchain technology has the potential to be transformative not only in the EU but throughout the world in coming years.” What does that mean for us?

We invited nine influencers to weigh in on the facets of the blockchain and explain why the industries that make the world go round see tremendous potential in this technology. This series consists of four parts that dissect the purposes and benefits of the blockchain and shed some light on the main concerns and obstacles.

In the first part of this interview series, we invited our blockchain influencers to talk about the blockchain’s impact on our lives and to weigh in on the importance of the legal factor in the blockchain’s healthy development.

Now it’s time to ask them about their concerns, the advantages of this technology, the obstacles to experimenting with it and the industries that cannot be disrupted by the blockchain.

What Are Linux Logs? How to View Them, Most Important Directories, and More

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D Zone

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June 28, 2017

Logging is a must for today’s developers, and it’s important to understand Linux logs, how to view them, and which logs are most important to your work. We wrote this mini-guide to give you all the need-to-know essentials in an easily digestible format. It won’t take up your entire lunch break – promise!

A Definition of Linux Logs

Linux logs provide a timeline of events for the Linux operating system, applications, and system, and are a valuable troubleshooting tool when you encounter issues. Essentially, analyzing log files is the first thing an administrator needs to do when an issue is discovered.

What’s New in the Xen Project Hypervisor 4.9?

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Xen Project

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June 28, 2017

The Xen Project Hypervisor 4.9 release focuses on advanced features for embedded, automotive and native-cloud-computing use cases, enhanced boot configurations for more portability across different hardware platforms, the addition of new x86 instructions to hasten machine learning computing, and improvements to existing functionality related to the ARM® architecture, device model operation hypercall, and more.

We are also pleased to announce that Julien Grall, Senior Software Engineer at ARM, will stay release manager for Xen Project Hypervisor 4.10 release.

We grouped updates to the Xen Project Hypervisor using the following categories

New Features
Improvements to Existing Functionality
Multi-Release Long-Term Development

Your Container Orchestration Needs: Kubernetes vs. Mesos vs. Docker Swarm

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Kubernauts

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June 28, 2017

On a recent client project, I’ve been asked to compare the 3 main players on the market for container orchestration and cluster management solution, these are Kubernetes, Docker Swarm and Mesos (a.k.a Data Center Operating System). Last year in October a feature comparison matrix was created by the team, which I had to adapt slightly to reflect the current status by the time of this writing in 2017 / June. In this post I’m not going to go through the feature comparison, but rather discuss and ask about your needs to find out which solution(s) might be the right choice for your business.

Depending on the real business needs and the flavor of your developers and operators, it might be that even 2 or even all 3 options have to co-exist together to full-fill a broader range of use cases in larger enterprises.

The reality is that the decision about finding the right container orchestration and cluster management solution for many enterprises depends on their todays and future needs.

What Are the Leading Software Platforms for NFV Infrastructure?

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Tech Target

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June 28, 2017

As service providers report a number of successful production deployments of network functions virtualization, it is important to consider the infrastructure beneath it all — and the available options. The leading software platforms for NFV infrastructure are OpenStack and VMware’s vCloud NFV.

But service providers can choose from a number of OpenStack options, including sourcing from a supplier or open source internal development.

NFV deployments’ use cases vary widely and include wireless core networks, customer premises equipment, routing, security and the internet of things. During the second half of 2017 and throughout 2018, leading service providers will deploy NFV at scale with additional applications across their networks.

Open Tools Help Streamline Kubernetes and Application Development

By

Sam Dean

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June 27, 2017

Organizations everywhere are implementing container technology, and many of them are also turning to Kubernetes as a solution for orchestrating containers. Kubernetes is attractive for its extensible architecture and healthy open source community, but some still feel that it is too difficult to use. Now, new tools are emerging that help streamline Kubernetes and make building container-based applications easier. Here, we will consider several open source options worth noting.

Microsoft’s Kubernetes Moves

Microsoft has just open sourced Draft, a tool that streamlines application development and deployment into any Kubernetes cluster. “Using two simple commands, developers can now begin hacking on container-based applications without requiring Docker or even installing Kubernetes themselves,” writes Gabe Monroy, PM Lead for Containers at Microsoft. “You can customize Draft to streamline the development of any application or service that can run on Kubernetes.”

In April, Microsoft acquired the Deis container platform from Engine Yard, and Draft is a direct result of that acquisition. “Draft targets the ‘inner loop’ of a developer’s workflow while developers write code and iterate, but before they commit changes to version control,” notes Monroy. “When developers run ‘draft create’ the tool detects the application language and writes out a simple Dockerfile and a Kubernetes Helm chart into the source tree. Language detection uses configurable Draft ‘packs’ that can support any language, framework, or runtime environment. By default, Draft ships with support for languages including Node.js, Go, Java, Python, PHP, and Ruby.”

You can see this process in action here.

In acquiring the Deis container platform from Engine Yard, Microsoft also became a steward, along with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and several other organizations, of Helm, which is billed as “the best way to find, share and use software built for Kubernetes.” It is essentially an open Kubernetes package manager. “Helm Charts help you define, install and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes application,” note the community leaders.

The Kubernetes blog notes the following about Helm: “There are thousands of people and companies packaging their applications for deployment on Kubernetes. This usually involves crafting a few different Kubernetes resource definitions that configure the application runtime, as well as defining the mechanism that users and other apps leverage to communicate with the application…We began to provide a home for Kubernetes deployable applications that provides continuous releases of well documented and user friendly packages. These packages are being created as Helm Charts and can be installed using the Helm tool. Helm allows users to easily templatize their Kubernetes manifests and provide a set of configuration parameters that allows users to customize their deployment.”

Red Hat’s New Angle on Kubernetes

Red Hat, too, is positioned to help users streamline their Kubernetes implementations. The company recently announced its intent to acquire San Francisco-based startup Codenvy, which gives developers options for building out cloud-based integrated development environments, including working with Kubernetes and containers. Codenvy is built on the open source project, Eclipse Che, which offers a cloud-based Integrated Developer Environment (IDE) and development environment. The OpenShift.io cloud-based container development service from Red Hat already integrates Codenvy’s Eclipse Che implementation.

In essence, Codenvy has DevOps software that can streamline coding and collaboration environments. According to Red Hat: “[Codenvy’s] workspace approach makes working with containers easier for developers. It removes the need to setup local VMs and Docker instances enabling developers to create multi-container development environments without ever typing Docker commands or editing Kubernetes files. This is one of the biggest pain points we hear from customers and we think that this has huge potential for simplifying the developer experience.”

“The rapid adoption of containers makes orchestration standards the industry’s next step. We held the view that Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift are leading the way in this space. So when Red Hat shared their container vision, our decision to join them became a no-brainer,” Codenvy CEO Tyler Jewell said.

The move toward containers shifts many types of dependencies pertaining to applications, and shifts how applications are created. Kubernetes has proven to be an essential orchestration tool as these shifts evolve, and it is good to see open tools arriving that can help streamline Kubernetes itself and make developing applications easier.

To learn more about Kubernetes, check out the sample course materials for Kubernetes Fundamentals (LFS258), an online, self-paced course developed by The Linux Foundation Training that gives a high-level overview of what Kubernetes is and the challenges it solves. Download a free sample chapter now.

openSUSE Leap Is Now 99.9% Enterprise Distribution

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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June 27, 2017

Two years ago when openSUSE decided to move the base of openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), they were entering uncharted territory. SLE is a tightly controlled enterprise ship that runs on mission critical systems. On the other hand openSUSE has been a community-driven project that, despite sponsorship from SUSE, is relatively independent.

It became clear, though, that moving to SLE source code would solve many problems for both members of the SUSE family. SLE would get a platform from where it can borrow the latest fully tested packages, and openSUSE Leap would get enterprise grade code base to move into CentOS and Ubuntu territory. SLE and openSUSE created a symbiotic relationship in which they were pulling content from each other.

Moving closer

“Initially when we moved the base, our utopian vision was to have a 30-30-30 split from SLE, Tumbleweed and openSUSE into Leap,” said Richard Brown, openSUSE chairman.

“The first version of openSUSE Leap (42.1) didn’t have that equilibrium and there was too much replacement of SLES components from the community. With 42.2, we moved closer and there was enough SLE and enough Tumbleweed and we inherited what we wanted from 42.1. But with the upcoming 43 release, we are exactly where we wanted to be. The base comprises SLE, so you have a fully enterprise grade base, then you have fast moving components on top of it that come from Tumbleweed, which allow you to stay updated on a very stable system. The way I look at it is upcoming release of Leap is 99.9 enterprise grade software; it’s our CentOS, just better and broader with the addition of integrated community packages,” he said.

Leap has essentially created a community platform for those developers and sysadmins who run SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) in their datacenters. The strategy to move codebase to SLES has worked. openSUSE Leap has been a success so far as now even companies like IBM contribute directly to Leap as they know that’s the best and open way to get things into SLES. Fujitsu is shipping Tumbleweed and Leap to their users, according to Brown.

Changing mission statement

Initially openSUSE’s mission statement was to “encourage use of Linux & Open Source everywhere.” But, that’s no longer the heart and soul of openSUSE. OpenSUSE has evolved beyond just a Linux distribution project. They now cater to a totally different audience — developers and sysadmins. So, openSUSE board members drafted a new mission statement: “Openly engineered tools to change your world.” The mission statement is not final yet, but once it’s discussed with the community and everyone is onboard it may become official.

“We work in open, we share our opinion, which changes over time as we learn more or things improve. We work on everything openly. What we do essentially is engineering – we help in building packages, we help in testing and we help in delivering them. We care about the process.” said Brown. “At the same time everything that we do is a tool, OpenQA is a testing tool, OBS is a packaging tool, YaST is system management tool, even our distributions Leap and Tumbleweed are tools.”

openSUSE in Windows land

Microsoft is now bringing openSUSE to Windows users, through its WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) initiative. Microsoft and openSUSE projects have finalized all the “paperwork” and Rich Turner of Microsoft confirmed that openSUSE for Windows is in the works.

Brown said there will be two members of the SUSE family in the Windows Store: Leap 42.2 and SLES 12. This means users will be able to install and run command-line utilities from both of these platforms. Although Leap will be available for free, SLES is subscription based. However, SUSE has started a SUSE Developer Program that offers one year free subscription of SLES. Thus, developers have access to thousands of packages, tools, and utilities through either of the two platforms.

Many free software advocates may wonder whether this will affect the user-base of Linux. If developers can access Linux utilities from within Windows, there won’t be any need to install Linux desktop anymore. Brown said, “We are a project that creates tools and it doesn’t matter which platform runs those tools. You can use them on openSUSE or Windows. The idea is to help more people use our tools and get work done,” said Brown. “I think it will actually increase the reach of Linux as now those users who would have never installed Linux will be able to use these tools. Windows has a much larger market share than Linux and these users will now have access to Linux tools.”

Incubating new ideas

As openSUSE is evolving into a project that offers tools, Brown said they are also contemplating a new project called openSUSE Incubator. Since OBS allows developers to create packages and collaborate, over time it may create some discussions around the quality of these projects.

“How do we ensure that these projects that are available through OBS are of openSUSE quality?” asked Brown. There is already an answer to that question: Apache Incubator, a place where Apache Software Foundation incubates new projects.

openSUSE will look at the projects that are not up to their standards and will mark them as Incubator. The idea is to create a fertile and nurturing environment that enables developers to bring their projects to openSUSE and see them grow. As part of the Incubator, projects will get access to OBS build service, infinite bandwidth from openSUSE mirror, and will be hosted on the openSUSE infrastructure and can be consumed by users directly.

However, that also doesn’t mean anyone can “dump” their projects at openSUSE Incubator. Brown is working on some basic guidelines to ensure that the projects at least share the same principles of openness as openSUSE, and that the projects have a few maintainers. The projects will have the option to use openSUSE branding, but Brown stresses that despite being part of openSUSE Incubator, they will remain independent when it comes to branding. Many open source projects can benefit from a project like openSUSE Incubator.

Conclusion

Overall, openSUSE community is heading in the right direction as our computing world is changing. Instead of sticking with the operating system, they are expanding their reach and catering to what developers and sysadmins need.

Connect with the Open Source community at Open Source Summit, September 11-14 in Los Angeles, CA, with over 200 sessions covering everything from Cloud and
Containers, to Security and Networking, to Linux and Kernel Development. Register now & Save $150.

Pivoting To Understand Quicksort [Part 2]

By

Dev.to

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June 27, 2017

This is the second installment in a two-part series on Quicksort. If you haven’t readPart 1 of this series, I recommend checking that out first!

In part 1 of this series, we walked through how the quicksort algorithm works on a high level. In case you need a quick refresher, this algorithm has two important aspects: a pivot element, and two partitions around the pivot.

We’ll remember that quicksort functions by choosing a pivot point (remember, this is only somewhat random!), and sorting the remaingin elements so that items smaller than the pivot are to the left, or in front of the pivot, and items that are larger than the pivot are to the right, or behind the pivot. These two halves become the partitions, and the algorithm recursively calls itself upon both of these partitions until the entire list is divided down into single-item lists. Then, it combines them all back together again.

Site Reliability Engineering for Cloud-Native Operations

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The New Stack

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June 27, 2017

Developers want to change things as soon as they can, while operations teams remain apprehensive that changes will break stuff. To reconcile these two drives, Google forged the path of site reliability engineering (SRE), an emerging practice for maintaining complex computing systems that need to run with high reliability. As the founder of Google’s SRE Team, Ben Treynor put it: SRE is “what happens when a software engineer is tasked with what used to be called operations.”

SRE dates back to 2003 when Treynor joined Google to manage a team of engineers to run a production environment. The practice proved to be a success, and the company now 1,500 engineers working in SRE. Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, Twitter, Dropbox, IBM, and Amazon have all implemented their own SRE teams as well.

Linux Owns Supercomputing

By

ZDNet

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June 27, 2017

The US is falling behind in the supercomputer race, but no matter where a supercomputer is running, one thing remains true: It’s running Linux.

In the latest Top500 Supercomputer competition, which was revealed in June 2017, 498 out of 500 supercomputers were running Linux. Of the remaining two, both ran Unix.

These were a pair of Chinese IBM POWER computers running AIX near the bottom of the list. These machines came in at 493 and 494. Since the November 2016 Top500, these supercomputers have dropped by over 100 places. At this rate, Linux will score a clean sweep in the next biannual Top500 competition.